"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, January 08, 2006

A Question for the Praxis

Here's a question for the the Social Studies Praxis Exam:

Based on the following quotes from this New York Times story on funding for foreign languages, who sounds like the bigger idiot?

"In order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture," Mr. Bush said. "You know, when somebody comes to me and speaks Texan, I know they appreciate the Texas culture. When somebody takes time to figure out how to speak Arabic, it means they're interested in somebody else's culture."-- George W. Bush

OR

"We don't know how to do it. This whole notion is in its infancy. But our hope is this is a start, and we can build on it." -- Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings

3 comments:

It is not surprising that Sect. Spellings does not know how to effectively implement a foreign language program since she is not "Highly Qualfied" in this area. I find it amazing that she admitted this inexperience to the general public.

Since the Govenor's Association Meeting this past summer, some elected officials have finally figured out to be competitive in a global economy, one needs a workforce that speaks multiple languages.

Chicago City Public Schools and a Kentucky have begun to start teaching Mandarin Chinese to students through a partnership with China. Kansas says that its not fair to ignore the new world influence and were eager to add Chinese to their offerings.

I didn't know I was bilingual all this time! Texan! Wayalll, lemme speak some "Texan," to that dude.

"Listen, pard, so far you bin so lucky yore ridin' a gravy train with biscuit wheels, there, Bushie, but listen, yore all swole up with paur, there aintcha? Ever since ya gave up the friendly creature, you've been tighter than the bark on a tree. Yore all hat and no cattle when it comes to speakin' Mexican, and yore none too sharp wi' the Inglish, either.

Y'know, you've now done stopped preachin' and gone to meddlin' in so many areas there, sho 'nuff, that yore lookin' at eddication like a calf looks at a new gate. So give it a rest there, fella-- you look like you bin rode hard and put away wet."